This camera was supplied, as a special offer, by Serif, along with an old version of their Photoplus software for £19.95 (plus p&p).
The camera is a very convenient size to slip into an inside jacket, or shirt, pocket, being only 5" high and 1" wide, and is powered by 2 AAA batteries, which should give up to 2 hours continuous shooting
In use the camera is a simple point and shoot type which took reasonable snapshots (352 x 288 pixels)outdoors but refused to take photos indoors, unless the subject was well lit, or brightly backlit, which tended to overexpose the photo. The shutter button was on top of the camera and was sometimes difficult to press due to a lip at the rear. This may have been responsible for the difficulties experienced shooting indoors.
Although the batteries are supposed to last up to 2 hours (2 weeks on standby), once they fail the camera loses any photos stored in its SDRAM memory, so ready access to a computer is essential. As there is no option to add extra storage, the camera is limited to only 80 photos or 20 seconds of lo-res video (7 secs at hi-res)
Connection to a computer is via USB cable, which also supplies power, and worked very well, once the camera software had been loaded.
Downloading the photos was very quick, but none of the images were of any decent quality and had to be 'improved' using the supplied Photosuite software before they could be used.
The camera can also be left permanently attached to the computer and used as a webcam, but the images were not very good, possibly due to low lighting.
This camera might be of use to someone working outdoors and needing a small camera for occasional use, or for web images in a reasonably lit area.
As switching to a 'video camera' would overwrite any stored photos, I never tried this option.
The camera, and software, have been returned to the retailers and a refund obtained.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
I bought Aiptek Pencam earlier generation. I returned it because picture is of poor quality and I wondered whether Pencam 2 Trio was better. Thanx. You have given the answer.
Kingseany 24.04.2003 15:03
Not sure I'd have bothered returning it, having paid twenty quid for it!
Dodie 23.04.2003 22:31
Thanks for notifying me about your edit. Great op :o)
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